BLM Land Site of New School

A groundbreaking ceremony was held on Wednesday, July 21, for a new school for 5th and 6th graders in Rock Springs. Members of the Sweetwater County School District Number 1 Board of Trustees, School District Superintendent, Rock Springs Mayor Tim Kaumo, and the principal of the new school turned the first shovel of dirt at the 124.45 site where the new school will be built.

The school district received the land as part of a Recreation and Public Purposes Act lease from the Bureau of Land Management Rock Springs Field Office. The Act authorizes the sale or lease of public lands for recreational or public purposes to state and local governments and to qualified nonprofit organizations. The building seen in the background is Sage Elementary, a kindergarten through 4th grade elementary school that opened in the fall of 2009 that shares the school site location on the R&PP lease. The lease was issued in 2008, and the lease boundary includes a segment of the Overland Trail. The school district is responsible to protect and interpret the trail under the stipulations included in the lease. Two high schools will be built in the future at the site.